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Kathryn
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 11:38am | IP Logged
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Ok...I know this is waaaay early but my mind already starts going toward planning for Christmas at least a little bit now.
In the beginning...  ...when DH and I only had 2 children, we typically did 1 big Santa gift each, 3 smaller gifts each from us and then waay too many stocking stuffers. Add 1 more child and it stayed the same. Last year we added the baby and it still stayed the same. That's a **LOT** of presents and I'm the only one buying...DH leaves all that to me. It was just too much last year...too much time away from home for me to shop, too much money and too many gifts for them all. Actually they usu. don't get any toys outside of Christmas except birthday which is why I usu. went a little overboard at Christmas. Anyway, plus, the 3 older ones all wanted to make and/or buy something for each of their siblings last year which again, required more mom time to shop, buy and/or handicraft something. I'm all for the spirit of giving but....
How do you do it at your house when you have a lot of kiddos?
Santa gifts?
Stockings?
From parents to children?
From siblings to each other?
Gifts to each other?
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 11:48am | IP Logged
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we do stockings from santa
we do gifts from us.. number depends on cost.. what we can budget for it and divide for the average.. though if I can spend less on some (sales or such) I can spend more on others. sometimes I also do family gifts like a small stack of new movies that are for everyone.
Kids do name drawing.. so that instead of lots of tiny gifts each child gets 1 sibling gift with a limit of about $5.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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zookeeper9
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 1:46pm | IP Logged
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A few children ago we started with the following:
Something you want
I have the children give me a list of 5-10 items. They know they will only get one. Plus it gives me a list for the grandparents when they ask what the children want.
Something you need
This can be anything that is a pressing need shoes, notebooks, paper
Something you wear
some years it has been socks, undewear or something from thift stores or garage sales
Something you read
I check out half.com and Amazon and start looking
That still equates to 44 gifts for everyone, but not horribly unmanageable in cost or amount. I start now and am usually finished by the end of October.
Then depending on the budget we might do stockings. They were never important to me. In DHs family it was always stuffed full of candy, we dont' need THAT much candy around here. LOL
I have a friend that will only do three gifts since that is what Jesus received from the Magi.
Children give gifts of service and time to each other.
They make up gift certificates for each other. Things like I will play a board game with you, I will read to you. I will do your morning chores for you.
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Donna
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Plus one saint in heaven Andrew 1/22-7/5/2005
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 2:07pm | IP Logged
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zookeeper9 wrote:
| Children give gifts of service and time to each other. They make up gift certificates for each other. Things like I will play a board game with you, I will read to you. I will do your morning chores for you. |
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I really like this idea! I'm definitely going to try that this year. I think the kids will love it, and it cuts down on the clutter while still indulging the kids' desire to give something to one another (which I do want to encourage). I usually have them draw a surprise picture for each of their siblings that are then displayed in their bedrooms for a month or so.
I'm very interested in reading how you all handle gifts with lots of children. I grew up with a tree absolutely PACKED with gifts, and we have tried hard to steer away from that in our own home, though with so many children, the boxes really do add up even if there are only a couple per child. I like the idea of shared gifts to cut down on clutter, especially as the children get older. To be honest, we don't usually buy anything new for Christmas gifts except perhaps a book or two (I usually put aside things I have found at garage sales/library sales/etc. to give as Christmas presents). Looking forward to reading responses.
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Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Sept 08 2011 at 2:14pm | IP Logged
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celeste, cuttinng down on clutter in preparation will help a great deal.. then when you get the new things for Christmas there's places to put them instead of just "on top of the pile".
oh and  just because it's the plan doesn't mean it always works that way 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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jawgee
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We do a "Three Wisemen" Christmas.
Each child gets one "frankincense" gift, which would be something that will bring them closer to God. They also get one "myrrh" gift, which is something for their body. Finally they get one "gold" gift, which is something that they really want.
They also get one gift from Santa and a stocking. It seems like a lot, since it is 16 gifts for the kids, but the gifts are not extravagent. Sometimes, also, I do shared gifts (the last few years the frankincense gift has been another figure for our outdoor nativity set, which was a family gift).
In terms of shopping, EVERY gift is purchased online. Whew. I love that. Makes it so much easier for me.
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Monica
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Trinity
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Every Advent we go through the children's toys and decide what to keep, donate or throw out. (We only throw out things that are broken, in bad shape, missing parts, etc.) One of the benefits of this is making room for the new toys that the children will receive for Christmas.
Even with only two children I find myself scaling back on Christmas each year. This is what we are doing this year:
On Christmas Eve the children open one present: a new pair of pajamas. In the morning we open stockings and presents. I always include some religious items in the stockings: a rosary, prayer cards, a book about the saints, etc. Stockings always include an orange, a candycane and a piece of chocolate. We give one present to each person. So my son will receive one present from me, one from his father and one from his sister.
We try to put the emphasis on giving, so we help each child carefully select the gifts they will give to others. They also love to pick a name off the Giving Tree at church each year.
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Trinity
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MamaFence
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We also do the three wisemen gifts! We love that tradition. Stockings are from Santa, but I'm iffy on how I feel about the whole Santa tradition. We do St. Nicholas, also.
Ha! When you add up all that, it's gifts galore!
I really love the gifts of service idea...my girls are probably old enough to start that, so I'm going to talk my hubby about it. :)
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kingvozzo
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Something we've been doing for the last few gift-giving occasions is giving the kids Audible "certificates" we make the certificate Ourselves after buying a large-ish subscription to the service. Our kids are huge audiobook fans, so they're happy, and they don't take up any space!
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Noreen
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Mom to 4 great kids and 10 sweet ones in Our Lady's arms
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jawgee
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| Posted: Sept 12 2011 at 1:17pm | IP Logged
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MamaFence wrote:
| We also do the three wisemen gifts! We love that tradition. Stockings are from Santa, but I'm iffy on how I feel about the whole Santa tradition. We do St. Nicholas, also. |
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I don't really like the Santa part, either, but we downplay that part of Christmas. On St. Nicholas' feast day (December 6) we work as a family to surprise another family with a gift. Last year we made dinner for a neighbor family who was struggling. We left it on the doorstep, rang the bell, and ran. The kids thought that was great fun!
That's one way that we take the emphasis away from the secular version of the holiday.
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Monica
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Christmas gift giving as the family grows
